Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mishlert]

My wife an I are moving into a new place and we are looking around for an LCD TV with digital recording. We thought about full HD, but have decided to wait for the time being.
Suggestions?

[eamo]

The predictions from the LCD TV market (from a report I saw on CNN) are that they will be 40%-50% cheaper than they are now by this autumn. I'm waiting.

When 47inch full-HD LCD's are around 1,500,000 then I will take the plunge.

My digital recording is done by the Skylife box. 160GB hard drive.

[gsxr750r]

I have a 42" LCD by LG Xcanvas. It is Full HD.

If you are planning only on watching HDTV and DVD movies, then don't bother getting Full HD, unless you wait for prices to come down. The programming that comes via HDTV is 1080i resolution, anyway... not 1080p. They won't be changing that anytime soon, either. They already have troubles balancing the bandwidth with the high resolution at just 1080i (so you get blocky video during fast-moving scenes sometimes).

Most Xbox games have been 1080i when you've seen them on display anyway. They look great. Movies in 1080p won't be rentable or buyable in any decent quantity for a year or more. And they look incredible in 1080i anyway. And even still, you'll need a full 1080p player outputting through HDMI to do it (in most cases). Some composite inputs on HDTVs will do 1080p, and others won't.

As an owner of a Full HD machine, the only compelling reason to get 1080p is if you are a videophile or a gamer, or owner of an HDDVD or Bluray player, which still cost over a million won here. Even still, they look incredible at 1080i. Sitting back more than a meter or two, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between 1080i and 1080p.

I suggest that if you have to buy now, don't pay extra for it, unless it's within a few hundred dollars. If you can get a good deal on a set that is 1080i, or 1366x768 (I think that's the number) it's good enough. Don't go with any resolution lower than that.

Current Full HD sets are useable as computer monitors, and will give you a better pic for that, but resolutions will be going higher soon, and it's currently not enough resolution for the size of the monitor to be used as an everyday monitor, IMHO. If using it as a huge computer monitor is your goal, I suggest you wait for higher resolutions. 1920x1080 is a lot, but not so massive on screen as big as these.


It's my believe that "Full HD" will be the standard in 6 months to a year, and higher resolutions will be introduced to take the higher price points. They will make much better computer monitors, and usefulness above 1080p is zilch unless your goal is to use it as a computer monitor.


I also have the "time machine" digital HD inside of my TV, so I can record stuff. You need digital cable to get more than a few channels that allow you to record designated shows at certain times. That means a set-top box of some sort from the cable company. I just use analog cable, but they don't want to sell that anymore... they try to push you to get digital cable. My TV can decipher maybe six of those channels into digital, so I can record a few things. Otherwise, I just have to push record myself.